Prepayment message receiving and delivering device



Oct. 16, 1928.

R. BUCHNER I 'PREPAYMENT MESSAGE RECEIVING AND I DELIVERING DEVICE Filed Aug. 23, 1926 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Oct. 16, 1928.

R. BUCHNER PREPAYMENT MESSAGE RECEIVING AND DELIVERING DEVICE Filed Aug- 23, 1926 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Oct. 16, 1928. 1,688,114

R. BUCHNER PREPAYMENT MESSAGE RECEIVING AND DELIVERING DEVICE Filed A g- 23, 1926 4 Sheets-Sheet. 4

' "Patented; Y v I 5. beset lip in shops otherpublic places for riwnoniirrBUcrriwnn, orfsynitnY, SOUTH wALns, AUSTBALIL- as mes iirnssaennncnivme AND" DELIVERING nnvionl f i A i1ilicatioh fi1ed A1igi1 st-123 192a; seria nbfia1;oss,ana in Anstralia lin uist25,1925.

Q Thisjinvention relates to'means for serving-- publ c, convenience by holding and deliver-.

ing messages at difierentlocations. vx'lheobje'ct ofthe present'iinvention is to providean effective coin cont-rolled device which may receiving and holding messages and making such messages accessible toaddressees Who rcalli fo r them. Y With siich stations installed at prominent places in a city'or town, one 1 might leave at one or more of such places a message tobepicked up at any later time by any person to Whom it 'is directed, the sender 'j operated unlocking "mechanismand with an indicator toadisplay the names of addressees and receiverhaving previously arranged to resort to the'prearran'ged station or stat ons and picking up of the j mes-s for the leaving sage.

The device com'pri fis essentially one or.

moretablets or receptaclesiprovided with an automatic locking arrangement and a' coin for Whom memoranda hav been leftfl v In an alternative arrangement a slot or other entry through which memoranda slips are insertible may beclosed by a 'coin'feed device When it is ireqnire'dto impose a charge forfithe' leaving or a memorandum and another -"charge for the aen eryer it.- The memoranda cards or slips are collected in a boxor filing-arrangement andare accessible only Whenit isopened after releaseof the lockingmeans; by inserting a coininto slot. 7 v V The message recelvmg arrangementsimayim clude means for.siipplyingmemoranda cards orslips With or tvithoiit payment therefor.

In thegformer case, the insertionIoi'acoi'n opcrates mechanism .WlllQll permitsiac'cess to a receiving drawer ior slot; 7 Cards orsl i ps ma stockof cards orj slips and which closes such access .yvhen a card' or slip, is nserted llltO a then be taken o'nlygbetween the time ivhen'fa coin has beeninserted anda rriessage'has been that the" expected ine'ssage is awaitinghim 'cally.

3- Ei smessage before 'reclosing the tablet or r'ecep-j tacle.

The relockingiis effected autornati y PATENT.OFFICE]- termined coin an addressee maygainjaccess V to the message and maythen leave a reply 7 The .part of the indicator on Which'the c n'amc,initi al or other markmaybe made by v 7 the person leaving a message s made accessil,

his only Whilst the message receiving device is open and it is at other times protected by a transparent cover. 'The "Writing of matter ed against; i

on the indicator by idle persons is thus guard- The invention is'not restricted to any par-f ticular structure of mechanism for the carry ing out ofithe"before-mentioned operations.

.One preferred form ofit is hereinafter described, with reference to the-accompanying drawings,and other arrangements are sug-' gested in theifollowing description.

In'the accompanying'drawings I i Fig.1 is an QXtGI'IOI View of the machine embodying the invention fitted with eight tablets, one ofjwhich is shovvnin the'out POSltiOh and the others in the fin? position;

Itji's tobez nderstocd that machinesmay be made containing any'required number of tabletsarruigedin oneor more banks and that inplace of tablets shallow; drawers adapted I to carrycarfds or envelopes maybe fitted;

Fig. 21s a vertical transverse section on the 7 plane 2 2mg. 1 7 i, e Fig. 3' is a liorizontalsection 0n the plane Fig- 4 isa partial transverse section on: the

plane'sa Fig. 3; and

explanatory of the l0ck1:releasi11g arrange-T Fig; his a fragmentary perspective view rThe ekteinal form of the be adapted according to any architectural de sign,' the*cash register type of de'sign indif g 'cated' in the'drawingib'eing, however, conplaced inflthe banana illicit'access to the v stock of. cards or slips is thus preventable; [Theindicator i rapanel. on which senders may Writeth'e'name or initial'or other indi I cator-of their; addressee sothata person ex:

'pe'cting a message Will'have' notice displayed venient one.

f'o'rithe coi'n 'entry'slot 1 1 an'dthe slot spaces "in Which-thedrawers or tablets '12 arehoused. Itis 'preferred'to "make the tablets 12' of aluminium with a ma surface having the V V c front edge 13 flanged'downwardly. to form @andhe Will not be obliged to make a payment :for mere enqiiiry. fQn inserting thefpred'ean: area on which addresses may be Written.

Fill

which they may swing in horizontal planes. They are of quadrant shape and a detent is formed in the arcuate edge of each of them; these detents are engaged by pawls 16 which are held up for engagement by back springs 17.

To enable the using of any tablet for a plurality of messages, the tablets may each carry a writing block with each leaf margin downfolded to hang as a flap over the front edge of the tablet. A message may be written on each sheet with the name of addressees on the sheet margin. A person resorting to the machine would in this case need to read all the overlapped address margins to trace a mes sage left for him.

Each pawl 16 is provided with an offset tail. 18 which sets behind a guide tube 19 in which a plunger 20 is slidable, 21 being a helical spring arranged for restoring the plunger to the out position. Theexposed ends 01 the plunger project through guide holes in a taco plate 22 on the front of the machine and their back ends are chisel shaped as shown at 23, Fig. 2. Through the guideways 19 extends a vertical guideway 24. In this vertical guideway a tier of slidable blocking pieces 25 are housed, resting one on top of the other, their lengths being so arranged that the top end of each one is at the level of the floor of one of the guideways 19. The guideway 2 1 which houses the blocking pieces 25 extends upwardly into another guideway 27 in which there is fitted a slidable plunger 28, the end of which is chisel shaped as shown at 29. WVhen the plunger 28 is at the in or idle position it checks upward movement of the blocking pieces 25 so that none of the plungers 20 can be pushed inward. hen, however, the

lunger 28 is retired, clearance is established or upward movement of the blocking pieces 25 sutlicient to allow one of the plunger-s 20, but no more than one, to be pushed through its guideway 19. YVhen one of the plungers 20 is thus pushed through its guideway 19, the check plunger 28 being first withdrawn, the striker piece 10 on the plunger which is so pushed in engages the oi'lset tail 18 on the pawl 16 and retires that pawl to the dotted line position shown in Fig. 3. 11 is a spring acting through a bell crank lever 4 2-4-.3 behind the ofiset tail 18 of the pawl 16 to force it to the locked position. The tablet or drawer 12 which is thus freedby retirement of its pawl 16 may then be swung outward from the in position shown in 3 to the out position which is shown in Fig. 1. hen one tablet is thus swung out all the other tablets are held locked and none oi these tablets can be swung open until the first one which has'been opened is first osed. When pressure on the plunger 20 is removed the spring 21 acts to restore the plunger to the out position and allow the nose of the pawl 16 to bear against the arcuate edge of the tablet or drawer 12 and to engage in a small do pression on the rear part of the arcuate edge 31. The light frictional engagement oi the nose of the pawl in the locating notch 30 is sutlicient to hold the tablet or drawer in the out position (Fig. 1) and to prevent accidental return of the tablet or drawer to the in position whilst a person is writing a message on the tablet or reading a message which has been written upon it. The tablet is forced outward as soon as its pawl 16 is released by means oi a coiled wire spring at. The tail of this spring bears against the side or the casing whilst its extended. end 15 bears against a snug 46 on the underside of the tablet. The tablet in this construction must be closed home by manual action. It is opened automatically as soon as its plunger .20 is depressed. It is to be understood that a reverse arrangement may be adopted in which the spring 15 will be arranged to ell'ect the closing movement as soon as the tablet 12 is re leased by a person who has placed a message on it or read a message from it, a dash pot or similar movement delay device being "tted to slow the closing movement in order that the tablet will not close suddenly whilst a person is using the machine if he momentarily ceases holding it open. In this case the user would need to swing out the tablet by manual action as soon as he had released the lock by depressing the plunger 20. r

The bank or plungers 20, one relating to each tablet, is associated with the locking plunger 28 which works in the guideway 2? above referred to; that plunger is held normally in the closed aosition by means of a coiled spring 48 whic 1 has its abutl'nent on a bracket piece 49. In its normal or locked position it sets above the top end of the tier of blocking pieces 25 and whilst it is in that p0sition none of the plungers 20 can be moved inward to release the tablet. The locking plunger 28 is controlled by the coin mechanism. The mouth of the coin slot 11 leads into a coin runway 50; this runway may be fitted with any of the known devices for checking illicit interference by introducing wires or picking tools. 51 is a swing piece which is pivotally hung at 52 and forms the rear side of the bottom end of the coin slot 50. In the forward side of the coin slot 50 a push finger 53 is hung pivotally at M directly opposite the swing piece 51. A link 55 con nects the push finger 53 with a master plunger 56 which is normally held in the out position by means of a coiled spring 57. In this nor mal out-position, clearance is offered for a coin of the appointed denomination to drop into the bottom of the com slot 50. The coin is lndicated at 156 as it would appear when inserted to effect the unlocking operation. 60

is a finger lever, the end of which takes under the coin 156; this lever is it'ulcrumed at 61 and its back end is connected by a link 62 to a I'Lesana bracket member63 which is fixed on the top end of the offset plate 43 which forms one arm of the bell crank lever which is controlled by the spring 41 as shown in Fig.3. The axis '71 of-this bellcrank lever is journalled at 72 and 73 on the brackets 49 and 74 respectively.

Upona coin beinginse'rted into the. slot and coming to the bottom of the slot as shown at 156 Fig. 2,the lock releasing operation may be performed; The master plunger. 56 is deposition shown i11"Fig. .2,therebyliberating the blocking pieces 25 so that any one ofthe bedepressed. Whena plunger 2O is'depressed its chisel end ent'ersbetween the blocking pieces so as thereby to block anyiother' of the plungers 20 from being depressed, The

plunger 20 that is so depressed, however, opcrates simultane'ously to release the pawl 16,1" whereupon the tablet 12 flies out to the'posi t-ionjshown in Fig. 1 and swingsback the bell crank 42-48. Thisswingingback movement is communicated through the bracket 63 and the link '62 to the finger lever 60so as to drop that finger, thereby removing the support from below the coin 156 and so allowing the the spring 48 operates toiforcethe swingpiece 51,link 76 and master plunger 28 forward,

coin: to fall into the coin pocket'ZO. Immediately thecoin has fallen into thep'ocket 70 thereby to lock thetier of blocking pieces 25 and preVent'operat-ion of anyotherof the plungers QO't-o release any one of the tablets 12. e A person using the machine is thus obliged to insert a coin and operate" ,the controls each time he requires to'use. one'of the tablets" or drawerslQ. A transparent protective door may befitted to. cover the front part of the casing in order toprotect the address mar- V ginals portions 13 of the tablets from illicit gfinterference; this protective door may be i mechanism controlled by thev movement of the bell crank 42- 43 1 In'the use of the device a personrequiring .to-leave a messa-gelinserts avcoin in the coin slot 11+-50 then depresses the master plunger 5 6 and then depresses one fLthe plUngersQO corresponding with" a tablet the margin of g whichis blank. Uponfperit'orming theseoperations the required tablet, 12 is swunggto] the outposition automatically by the action ofthe spring 45 and the coin is released and deposited in thecoin pocket 70 andthe locks then automatically reset. The person now writes his message on the face of the tablet 12 and writes the name of the addressee on the marginal portion-13 oithe tablet. He

then incloses the tablet which is immediately locked by its pawl 16. If the tablet is made in drawer shape the message may be written on a cardfor placed in an envelope. When the addressee 'oallsfor the messageand finds hisname or call sign indicated on the marwhich hereq'uires to get access." There quired tabletisthenliberated and is swung" to the op n position by means of the spring e I V "45 and the coin is liberated and deposited in plungers but not more than oneofthem may the coin pocket 70. Having read the message 1 the addressee obliterates it and restores the panel to the closed position by swinging it back'into its slot, r I

g What I claim as myinvention and desir to secure by Letters Patent is 1. A prepayment message receiving and delivering machine comprising a housing, a plurality of members adapted to carry memoranda and to expose the namesof addressees and pivot-mounted to' swing in a horizontal plane into andoutof said housing, spring latches for automatically locking said'members-in the in-positiomand means for releasing any one of said members but not more than one at a time, said means including manually operatedplungcrs co-acting with is inserted in a'coin. slot in the housing. ('2. A com' freed machme' according to cla m 1, inwhifch' the movable members are tablets having onesurface or each of them prepared as a wrltmg surface.

8. A coin' freed machine according to claim 1', in which the'movable members are receptacles-adapted to carry cards or the like. Y

4. A coin freed machine according to 01311111, 111 which the movable members are formed with edge portions adapted to. carry addresses in a permanently displayed posi-' tion whilst saidmember's are lockedclosed;

-55. 'A coin freed: machine according to claim .1, inwhich the movable members are formed withfedge portions adapted to' carry addressesfin'a permanently displayed-position whilst said members are locked closed, and sa d'edg' port ons are alsorprepjared as 7 writing surfaces.

I Initestimony whereof I affizi my signature r j RUDOLPH BUCHNER." 

